River City Marketplace fight brings light to viral fight videos

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- As Donteacia Seymore watches the images of a massive Christmas night brawl in the parking lot at the River City Marketplace, she's outraged.

The River City Marketplace brawl is the latest major disturbance in the Jacksonville area to go viral. An estimated 600 people were involved and five arrests were made. Police warn against videotaping fights, saying your personal safety should come first.

There are websites, such as WorldStarHipHop.com and YouTube.com, known as places where people can go to watch and upload heated fights. The latest melee in Jacksonville is garnering a lot of attention nationwide.

Dawn Herdershot, a spokesperson for the River City Market Place's management company, Ramco-Gershenson, said there will be additional security officers out there, not just this weekend, but for as long as they feel it's necessary.

This weekend people can expect to see added security in the River City Marketplace.

But many people are sounding off on our Facebook pageand parents and community members, and other teens, appear to be fed up.

"I was 20 minutes away from attending that movie theater, and so for me I was horrified. I was thinking what if I had been there? What if my daughter had been there? She's 10 years old," Seymore said.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office warns against videotaping fights.
They say in situations like this your safety should come first.

"If you're sacrificing your personal safety to get a good video shot that somebody may or may never see. I wouldn't recommend that at all," public information officer Shannon Hartley told First Coast News.

But Seymore says in this day and age with sites like YouTube and other popular social media these disturbing images sadly tend to go viral.

"It was a sad day. It was a sad day. But it was a reminder that this is something that's common. It's prevalent. It's not going away," Seymore said.

Seymore is helping to organize a town hall style meeting on January 6.

It will be held at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church on the Northside at 6 p.m.

Everyone in the community is encouraged to attend.

Hartley said JSO is looking into the possibility of creating a new Stop Station at the River City Marketplace. It's a much more scaled down version of a substation that would add more police presence in the area.

Those plans have been in the works before this massive brawl broke out, according to JSO.